William Edward Lori’s essay, “The Jesus mandate vs. Obama’s mandate” was published this afternoon in The Washington Post. Lori is the 4th bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport and the chairman of the US Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty.

Two paragraphs of Bishop Lori’s essay follow, but the full text is noted here:

Last year alone, Catholic Charities served more than
10 million of the poor, the needy, and the suffering throughout our nation.
Catholic Charities doesn’t know how many of those served were not
Catholic, because they simply never ask. Our faith compels us to serve, not the
faith of those we help.

Catholic ministries for the needy are as blind to race,
creed, class, and gender as Jesus Christ, their founder. That any one of them,
much less all of them, should be forced to choose between the Gospel mandate
and the U.S. government’s health care mandate strikes at the very heart of the
right to religious liberty on which our country was founded.

About the author

Paul A. Zalonski is from New Haven, CT. He is a member of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, a Catholic ecclesial movement, and an Oblate of Saint Benedict. Contact Paul at paulzalonski[at]yahoo.com.